


Little Beforus

by otaku_lady89



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Gen, Kid Fic, Meowrails, Slow Romance, mute!Dirk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-21
Updated: 2014-09-29
Packaged: 2018-01-13 06:01:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1215331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/otaku_lady89/pseuds/otaku_lady89
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the game spits them out, no one expected this. No one prepared them for this. A reversal of the usual de-aging tropes, where the Beforan trolls and the Alpha kids are the ones who are de-aged.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tumble User lunaticjin](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Tumble+User+lunaticjin).
  * Inspired by [Little Beforus](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/37036) by Lunaticjin. 



> Based on this picture log by Tumblr Artist http://lunaticjin.tumblr.com/
> 
> Go look at it! <3

 

“And what exactly is the explanation for this, kk? I mean seriously, HOW.” Sollux muttered, so tired his lisp was showing through, which oddly enough only mirrored the situation in an unfortunate, but adorable way. Which just made it that much more annoying, in Karkat’s opinion.

“As if I’d fucking know, chutedrip!” Karkat wailed, trying and failing to cover panic with anger. That’d been a useful tactic before the meteor and all the bullshit with SGRUB, but honestly, he’d outgrown it, and at this moment, he wanted nothing more than to have that veneer of ‘I fucking hate everything’ back. Because this, was beyond his comprehension, beyond his capability of can. He has lost the ability to can, and Karkat honestly wasn’t sure if he’d ever recover it.  
  
Little hands clinging to his pants only made the situation more real, which was oddly unfair. At least Sollux’ little clonecestor was normal, loud and rancorous and obnoxious, like an over-hyper Gemini should be. But this, this was just WRONG. Kankri Vantas, the most talkative asshole in existence, hadn’t said a WORD.

The little Maryam, who used to be a hell of a lot bigger (and curvier too) was looking at him like he was something sad, while Kankri hid his face in Karkat’s sweatpants. Honestly, Karkat himself was kind of sad (not that he’d ever actually say that to anyone, ever.) that Kankri wasn’t speaking up either. Maybe the fucking SEER of BLOOD would be able to explain why the session shit everyone out, only to have the Beforan trolls and the Alpha kids as… well… KIDS. He just thanked whatever misshapen fuckheads decided to make them actual kids, instead of goddamn wrigglers, or worse, pupa.

“Y-Yeah, what are… what are we going to do with, uh, them?” Nitram mumbled, struggling with his own rambunctious bundle of misery, who happened to have goddamn wings of all things. Rufioh was clearly upset, wings flapping, ranting and raving, wanting to play or fly or whatever the fuck it is Beforan kids did back then.

  
  
“Well, we can’t just let them wander around. It’d be unconchionable!” Feferi bubbled, her own little band of trouble and mischief grinning viciously at Karkat in a way that oddly made him feel at ease. Jegus, Meenah was a cutie. Again, not that Karkat would EVER say that out loud.

  
  
“I all up an don’t really see a motherfucking choice, do you?” Gamzee rumbled from the corner, and it sent a shiver of pain and annoyance down the Cancer’s spine.  “Little motherfuckers need some kinda lusus, what aint all dead and corpsified.”  
  
“You definitely shouldn’t be talking about corpses, Gamzee.” Kanaya glared, standing tall, her hand resting gently on Porrim’s short curls. The clown gave a honk, which was echoed by a littler one. Kurloz was smiling, and Karkat was honestly astonished how much like Gamzee the little makara looked.  
  
“I will paaaaaaaay anyone who will READ to her. Seriously. I am so sick of listening to her talk about these stupid books, anyway!” Vriska whined, Aranea pouting at her side. The book in her arms was as thick as Karkat’s arm and as big as Aranea’s entire torso. Too much book for one little troll, and honestly, Karkat wasn’t sure what to do with all of them. He looked down, and one single silver eye was peeking out, as if Kankri had finally gotten interested in the situation.  Nope, there it went, back to hiding behind black curls and grey sweatpants.

“We know next to nothing about this society, or it’s ways.” Zahhak rumbled from the corner, his skin sheening with blue sweat. The blue scars around his throat were more than Karkat wanted to think about. “We cannot abandon those who are our blood.”

  
  
“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m not exactly experienced with wrigglers, okay?” Sollux growled, holding Mituna upside down and using his psionics to keep the little bastard from reaching his oddly-large-skateboard.  
  
Looking to Terezi, one of the only sane ones, Karkat couldn’t help but smile. The blind girl was grinning, sitting against the wall, with little Latula in her lap. The two of them were giggling and making flapping motions with their hands. The fondness made Karkat a little nostalgic, and he had to look away before he did something stupid like sigh.

  
  
“Alright, fuckheads, listen up. We’re not abandoning the little pains in the necks. Vriska, get John on the phone, see how they’re handling their incestuous dancestors. Zahhak, you get started on locating housing for all of us, because fuck if I’m dealing with a wriggler on my own without any goddamn help.  And Gamzee, for the love of fuck, put the fucking paint away.” The clown honked, and Karkat called it a victory, despite the hollowness.  
  
Until a tiny, barely recognizable voice called from by his leg, that is. Until his bloodpusher shattered into a thousand tiny pieces.  
  
“Excuse me, sir. Am I being culled again? Where is HermitDad?” Kankri asked, and a hushed sort of silence fell over Karkat’s companions.


	2. Broken Hearts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In honor of chromyrose, I've finally finished the second chapter. I have no idea if there will be more, but I thought I at least owed her this. You can read her version of this in the comments on the first chapter!
> 
> After the game spat out the alpha kids and trolls as teen parents, there is much to discover about this new world of theirs. What will our darling group find? Shelter? Care? Little kid shenanigans?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In honor of chromyrose, I've finally finished the second chapter. I have no idea if there will be more, but I thought I at least owed her this. You can read her version of this in the comments on the first chapter!

_"Excuse me, sir. Am I being culled again? Where is HermitDad?" Kankri asked, and a hushed sort of silence fell over Karkat's companions._

Karkat's jaw worked, at a loss for words, for any sort of competant answer at all. His eyes darted around, taking in Kanaya's stoic face, Vriska's wide eyes, Sollux' slack-jawed look, and the burning pinpoint gray of way too many little eyes staring at him. What was he supposed to tell the wriggler? Culled... Fuck, what the fuck kind of culled did Kankri mean? That stupid Beforan version his older self always went on about? Or the Alternian version? That... was a pretty good fucking question actually, what the fuck WERE they going to do with these little assholes... 

"HermitDad had to go away for a little while. He asked Karkat to look after you." Kanaya's voice rang out, and Karkat's eyes snapped to hers. He could not state in clear enough words how thankful he was that she had decided to help him out of slack-jawed idiocy, so he sent her a small nod to thank her. However, the hesitant moue on Kankri's little black lips spoke of being unconvinced. Goddammit, of course his dancester would be a skeptical little chutestuffer, wouldn't he?

He felt a grimace take over his features, realizing that there was really only one way to settle that mistrust. Goddammit, he hated this idea, and he could feel the nausea settle on his stomach as he thought it over. Anxious to get it over with, Karkat decaptchalogued one of his sickles. He was surprised to find Regisickle in his hand, instead of Homes Smell Ya Later. The black of the metal certainly lent a seriousness to the situation. Kankri startled, his little fingers tightening in Karkat's pantleg. Swatting those fingers away gently, Karkat knelt in front of the little cancer, and closed his hand around the blade. 

Quieting the alarm bells in his mind, he opened his fingers, showing the crimson blood welling in his palm. Kankri stared, mouth open in a surprised little 'oh'. His fingers came back, this time smearing that crimson on the soft grey of his fingertips. He moved those fingertips in front of his face, and stared, for just a moment, the gunmetal grey of his pre-adult eyes darting between droplets. Karkat watched, and waited.

"It's red... Like me."

"Yeah." Karkat agreed.

"I... They always said I was the only one."

"They were wrong." Karkat muttered, a sudden embarassment settling over him, a byproduct of the sudden tenderness he couldn't shove out of his voice. He knew what it was like to think he was the only one. "You've got me. And that means no adults are going to cull you. Ever. Got that?" 

He watched that little face, as eyes darted between Karkat's eyes and the red smear on little fingers. He watched as the gears shifted, as the cogs turned inside that little mind. Finally, the tension seemed to fall away, and Kankri nodded, "Okay."

A collective sigh of relief escaped the adults of the group, and god dammit it all to hell, Karkat hated that he could call all of them that. Looking between the psuedo-relaxed faces of his co-players, he realized that they were all looking at him. Heat pooled in his cheeks, and he stood, wiping the crimson left on his hand onto his black sweats. "Alright nodefondlers, let's get started. Feferi, Eridan, you've got kid duty. If even ONE of them has a scratch on them when the rest of us come back, I will hold you personally responsible and flay you to within an inch of your life."

The two seadwellers took this news in two opposite ways, Feferi by giving a mock salute and giggling, and Eridan by gasping theatrically, before glowering annoyingly. Feferi clapped her hands, "Who wants tuna play tag?" The rousing chorus from the little ones, Meulin and Meenah being loudest, followed as she took off, with a finall call of, "Erifin's it!" 

"Wwhat?!" With that, Cronus scrambled away from his dancestor and after the others. Kankri, Karkat noticed, stayed glued to his side. He supposed he wasn't the worst one off. Aranea stuck close to Vriska's side too, and Porrim was still standing next to Kanaya. Taking a deep breath, Karkat decided to get on with business, and ignore the little ears for now.

"Alright. We're doing this in teams. Nepeta, Aradia, you two are going to be our fastest recon team, so it's your jobs to find us some fucking shelter. Staying out in the middle of a field when the sun comes up does not sound like a good fucking idea to me. Equius ignore the fuck out of that last order, you'd end up fucking it up if you built a goddamn house, somehow, I just know it. You work with Sollux, get your asses onto figuring out if our husktops will work in this environment and whether or not we can expect hostile forces. Vriska, do you, or do you not, have that nooksucker John on the line yet or not?!"

"Calm Doooooooown, Karkat, of course I do! He's been listening to you rant for the last ten seconds!" She laughed, and Karkat was reminded of why he wanted to strangle her. That thought path lead to a quick glance at the scars around equius' thoat, which lead to a trip on the Nope-train to Fuck-That-Ville. Instead, he snatched the phone out of her hand, ignoring a "Heeeeeeeey!!" and sticking it to his ear.

"John, I swear to all that is righteous and pulsing that if you do not tell me that your group of flamingly horrendous idiots did not all survive the bulgeriding olympics that was our exit from the game, I will end up going insane and possibly licking these random ass brown things that have the gall to masquerade as trees like they are lollipops of a red color and I am terezi." 

"Wow, breathe, Karkat." 

The troll paused for a moment, mouth open, unsure if he should appreciate the sheer punniness of that particular response, or if he should find a way to stick his hands through the communications device and throttle John fucking Egbert instead. The urge was only made worse after John broke into giggles.

"Oh man! I didn't even mean that one! That was totally by accident, but wow, that was kind of awesome!" More giggling, and again, Karkat had to stifle the urge to scream. 

"ANSWER THE FUCKING QUESTION, YOU PESTULANT MOLE ON THE SITTING-MUSCLES OF MY LIFE!" Karkat raged. He only realized what he'd did wrong when Kankri squaked, dropping into a crouch and covering his ears next to him. The action was so startling, that the older cancer almost missed John's response entirely.

"Yeah, yeah, we're all fine, buddy. Although little Dirk is having some trouble... turns out living by yourself for your entire life? Doesn't work well for talking. Who would have figured? How are you guys doing? Vriska mentioned you had your dancestor trolls with you? Man, I can't wait to meet them!"

Karkat frowned, unsure what to do, Kankri was still freaking out. He dropped, next to the kid, and set an awkward clawset on his back, rubbing in small circles. "Where are you idiots? We'll come and meet you."

"Huh? Oh! I'll have Jade figure out where you are, and then she can bounce us to you! Luckily, our godpowers still work, which means I'm still totally untouchable!" 

Karkat's hand was shoved off, an annoyed looking little jadeblood glaring at him. "Kankri doesn't like to be touched!" She snapped, crossing her arms and standing a sort of vigil over the other troll. "He told me so." That made him wonder just how old these kids were, and how much interaction they had with each other. Of course, he was interupted by John motherfucking Egbert derping in his ear again.

"Fine, whatever, just... Hurry the fuck up. Twelve wrigglers are going to be hard as fuck to feed, and we all need to figure out where we are and what's going on."

"gotcha!" And with that, the inconsiderate fuck hung up. Karkat bit back an irritated roar, remembering Kankri's little squeak. Instead, he threw the phone back to Vriska, a bit harder than necessary. 

"Good newth, KK." Sollux declared from where he and Zahhak had literally plopped their sittinghinds in the grass and were plodding away on computers. "Thereth intelligent life on thith planet. In fact, interethting enough, itth not jutht trollth. Integrated thothiety." God that lisp was annoying as fuck. Karkat guiltily thought about when Sollux hadn't had it, which, of course, lead to the rememberance of that goddamn clown-freak-out. "Clothetht town from here ith a wayth away though."

"Great. Just great." He muttered, scrubbing at his face. "Get an idea on what sort of identification we'll need, to make sure we and the wrigglers don't get seperated." 

"On it."

He turned then to Vriska, "Go take over for Eridan on kidsitting duty." 

"What?! Whyyyyyyyy?" She whined, and Karkat rolled his eyes. 

"Because you're not doing anything, and I need to talk to fishfuck."

"Rude, Kar!" Eridan called from his position at the bottom of a kidpile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright! Some poles here, people. I need some ideas if I'm going to continue this. 
> 
> One! Of these people, who do you want to end up as Karkat's Moirail?  
> Kanaya  
> Gamzee  
> Dave
> 
> Two! His Matesprit:  
> John  
> Eridan  
> Dave  
> Equius
> 
> Also, give me ideas for his Kismesis, too! No Karezi. Sorry guys, I just... I can't stand that pairing. ^.^;
> 
> Plus, throw me a vote here. Who wants them to move into a city/town with other inhabitants, and who wants them to make their OWN town?


End file.
